📄 Archived: 2025-11
🔗 Source: old version of this wiki

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Preserving Fertility pre-HRT

### Sperm Cryopreservation

#### Ensuring quality

- Avoid heat at all costs. No to Sauna/Hottub.
- Better to do in winter or spring, to avoid heat.
- Take zinc supplements
- Take omega 3 supplements
- Generally, require 2-4 days of abstinance before storage sessions.
- You usually need to be tested for STIs.

#### Basics of Storage

Depending on where you are from, it can be annoying to freeze and store gametes. Typically this is done by finding an IVF clinic that allows storing of sperm. It is possible to move sperm between clinics, but generally it is probably better to choose somewhere with good success rates. Transfer between countries can be difficult. You will generally need to pay an annual storage fee on the order of €200-400/year depending on the place.

The success rates are usually measured as pregnancies in <35yo women, <40yo women, and >40yo women. In a decent place, rated for <35to women are usually around a ~50% chance. Each place likes to measure and report different things though. Also note that most people who do IVF do so because they have fertlity issues, so most likely your rate of success will be higher. If a clinic has "donor success rates" that is usually more representitive. These success rates can be improved with genetic screening methods like PGT-A, and some nombers include it and some don't, but is getting more common (though also usually costs extra).

Main methods are In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) (incl ICSI), where one does fertilisation in vitro, and In-Utero Insemination (IUI), more affordable but less reliable.

Depending on your sperm quality, you will probably need to have multiple storage sessions. You can store anywhere between 1 and ~5 straws in a single session, each typically good for 1 round of IFV, but may need multiple straws for an IUI session. (IUI is typically far less expensive). Typical is 2-3 sessions, but more can also happen.

### Where to Store Gametes

In places like UK and Ireland, the process is kinda slow. As of 2025, most places in ireland no longer offer male gamete cryopreservation without a doctor's note due to storage shortage. UK is hit-or-miss with clinics, and in my experience you will be waiting months to do it.

There are some good IVF clinics in Spain which are worth considering, such as IVI or Instituto Bernabeu, which are much faster, with the drawback of needing to spend a week or two in Spain.

### Methods when trying to preserve fertility

In general, HRT has the most significant effects. However, if you really require not being on it (eg: for fertlity reasons, such as waiting to do gamete storage, or if temporarily stopping HRT to regain fertility), there are some things you can still do, though generally the effects will be less pronounced.

I have read some reports of people applying estrogel on the scalp and washing if off within 5 minutes to have some effect without raising blood estrogen levels too significantly, but there is likely more research that could be done. See link below for some ideas.

Some ideas from ChatGPT